Professor Phil Redmond CBE will give this year's Huw Wheldon Memorial Lecture. The Lecture, entitled The Future of Chidren's Television, will take place at the University of Cambridge West Road Concert Hall, 11 West Road, Cambridge, CB3 9DP at 3.30pm for 4.00pm on Wednesday 16 September 2009.

READ PROFESSOR PHIL REDMOND'S SPEECH HERE

Generations of British children have grown up with some of the most creative and best loved children's programmes in the world. But what is in store for the children of the future? Are the broadcasters failing to provide interesting and relevant television in a way children now consume media?  Listen to Professor Redmond, creator of Grange Hill, Brookside and Hollyoaks, address these issues in the annual RTS Huw Wheldon lecture. 

Professor Redmond is best known for creating three of Britain’s longest running drama programmes, Grange Hill (30 years); Brookside (21 years) and Hollyoaks (11 years).  He built Mersey Television, which was Britain’s largest independent drama production house employing over 500 people at the time it was sold in 2005. One of the acknowledged strengths of Mersey TV was its links to and support of education and culture. In 1998, Brookside was an integral part of the National Year of Reading through the Brookie Basics literacy clinics.  In 1989 Phil Redmond was awarded Honorary Chair of Media at Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) and since 1993 he has been a Fellow and Member of the Board of Trustees, as well as Chairing the International Centre for Digital Content (ICDC) also based at LJMU. In 1997 he was also appointed Vice Chair of the newly created North West Film Commission and became a Patron of the Commission in July 1999. Professor Redmond is involved in a wide range of cultural, entrepreneurial and philanthropic activities in Liverpool.  He was awarded a CBE in June 2004 for ‘services to drama’ in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list. He has written extensively for radio, television and stage and is currently a regular columnist for the Liverpool Daily Post.

The RTS Huw Wheldon Lecture is hosted by the Royal Television Society and recorded in Cambridge for broadcast on BBC Two.